The present invention relates to hand-held electronic games and more particularly to multi-player hand-held games of skill for children.
With the advent of low cost, miniaturized electronic devices, including LED's, it became practical for the first time to design low cost, battery-operated hand-held electronic games. One example of a hand-held electronic sports game is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,792, entitled "Obstacle Game", which issued in the names of R. S. Chang et al on July 31, 1979. The latter patent describes a football-like game that is manufactured and sold by Mattel, Inc., which game is played on a 27 LED playing field arranged in 3 columns of 9 rows each, the players and player movements being represented by the turn-on and turn-off of adjacent LED's. Also present in this game is the ability to generate sounds, one such sound being a short musical tune that is played upon the occurrence of a touchdown. Other hand-held sports games manufactured and sold by Mattel, Inc. include basketball, soccer, and baseball.
Not among the above-described games are games that have special appeal to young children, i.e., games based on simple themes that are already familiar to children. One such game known as "Statutes" or "Red Light", is described on pages 179-180 of a book entitled "Complete Book of Games and Stunts", by Darwin A. Hindman, published in 1956. As is the case with many children's games, the latter games are not easily realizable in a hand-held format.
The reason is that hand-held games are limited by size, cost and power consumption considerations to the use of relatively small and energy efficient interface devices such as LED's and manual switches. As a result, a designer cannot merely simulate game play that calls for physical movements, turns, closed eyes, etc. The challenge of adapting a game to a hand-held format is further increased by the need to provide the same or greater play value than the original game. Since play value, in turn, is dependent upon the degree to which the game calls for the exercise of strategy and manual skill, as well as luck, such adaptation may not be either straightforward or easy.